Minister Angelkova congratulates Fraport on 10 years of doing business in Bulgaria

Annual traffic of the Varna and Bourgas airports has increased by over 1 mil. passengers – from 3,4 mil. in 2007 to 4,5 mil. in 2016. A month ago both airports celebrated the welcoming of their 35 millionth passenger since the concession commenced. This was announced during the ceremony marking 10 years of Fraport Twin Star Airport Management PLC doing business in Bulgaria. Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, made a welcoming address to the guests, while official participants included the Varna and Bourgas Regional Governors – Stoyan Pasev and Valcho Cholakov, the CEO of Fraport Twin Star Airport Management PLC, Ulrich Heppe, etc.

During the first 9 months of 2016 the total number of passengers at the Varna and Bourgas airports registered a growth of 22.5% compared to the same period of last year, reaching 4.4 mil. passengers. These results were exceptionally good during the peak months from June to August 2016, when the two airports welcomed over 3,3 mil. passengers - 21% compared to the same period of 2015, it was announced during the ceremony. Stats indicate that during 2015 the two airports processed over 30 000 flights of 100 Bulgarian and international airlines under chartered and regular lines, to more than 140 destinations in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Minister Angelkova emphasized that these achievements are in line with the results reported by the Ministry in terms of successful development of Bulgarian tourism and are largely due to partnerships with large-scale tour operators and airliners. This year we registered records on the Bulgarian tourism market and achieved growth unprecedented in the sector’s history in our country, she said further.

According to her, the strong data suggest that more and more users prefer our country as a vacation location and also that a growing number of investors discover good conditions to implement their business projects. Fraport provides at both airports employment to a total of 650 fulltime and 1 000 seasonal employees, and has thus far invested over BGN 350 mil. in infrastructure expansion and upgrades, improvement of technical facilities and equipment, staff qualifications, achieving a total of over 30% growth in traffic during the period.